Boy, it really varies. I chose once every 4 months.
This year, I received an extra 2 days for having so much sick leave saved up. And one day for using less than 10 hours in six months.
Last year, I was informed that I had taken more sick leave than anyone in the department. Most of that was due to my parents health issues and my Fathers eventual death. We can take sick leave to help our parents go to the doctor etc.
I call in sick when I’m actually sick. I have been lucky recently; I can’t even remember the last time I had a cold. The only sick leave I have used recently is for dentist appointments. (I would use it for doctor visits as well, but considering how much time I usually have to wait between my appointment time and when the doctor actually sees me, I schedule my doctor visits for my days off.)
I have some incentive not to call in sick; if I keep working until I qualify for retirement, then every 200 hours of sick leave I have saved up converts to an extra $100 per year in my pension, and there’s no cap on saved sick leave (I get about 100 hours/year).
3 days in 15 years.
I picked never but, on closer inspection, I did have a day off sick in 2007/8. Before then was maybe 2004/5.
I put down “other”. I haven’t called in sick in a very long time, but if I needed to I would.
I only call in when I’m really sick. I am allowed, however, to use sick days to take my husband to his medical/dental appointments, as he can’t drive. I try to schedule those for my day off, but sometimes that doesn’t mesh. I haven’t been personally sick in the last year, had surgery the year before that, and have been able so far to sidestep the vomiting patients. Long ago there were a few times I had the Norwegian flu (in Norway it’s called the Danish flu), and couldn’t stand up until the booze worked its way out. The Egyptian flu got me a couple times, too, when I was going to be a mummy.
I never call in sick but I have some scheduled surgery coming up and I have more than enough sick leave to cover my absence (six weeks).
Other.
I call in sick when I am sick. That can be not at all for six months then a couple of times in one month.
In Sweden you don’t get paid for the first day of sick leave (and then 80% after that), so I have to be really sick to not go to work.
The idea of being allocated “sick days” seems really strange to me.
I was actually told at my last job that I was not allowed to take vacation instead of sick time, as that rule is a protection against being forced by work to take vacation days instead of calling in sick. Holidays are sacrosanct here.
I get migraines about 4-5 times a year. Generally once or twice a year they fall on a work day. I can neither drive nor work with one, so I stay home. Other than that, I’ve only taken time sick time when I had knee surgery 5 years ago. And even then, I worked from home on all but the first 2 days.
My employer is very sneaky about sick days. We are given 6 per year to use as we see fit. You are never questioned about them unless your time off reaches to 4 days in a row, at which point you must provide a doctor’s note to return you to work.
But, sick days taken are tallied and factor into the equation when it comes time to calculate raises or decide on who gets a promotion. As a result, quite a few people use vacation days when they are sick to avoid having an illness wipe out their potential raise or ruin a chance for promotion. Personally, I think this is a rotten, sneaky, and deceptive practice and have been campaigning against it. There are other more effective ways to disqualify an employee from a raise or a promotion, and it’s terribly unfair to someone who become genuinely ill. This year, for example, we are experiencing more people out with the flu, even though the flu shot is mandatory for all employees. This is the fault of the vaccine, not the employee, and shouldn’t count against them.
(dismounting soapbox now)
I voted every three months, but it fluctuates. I’m not actually sick more often than I am. However, I’ve got two little kids and they bring home all sorts of nasty disease and affliction from daycare. More often than not I’ll go to work if I’m sick, but if one of those little bastards keeps me up all night or spreads such pestilence that I’m effectively useless, I stay home.
I’d put 3-4 months. My worst crime is if I’m really sick on a Sunday, I’ll call in Monday without really evaluating whether it’s needed
I have chronic migraine. My current treatment plan has cut down the evil-awful migraines where I need to take all of my medications and pass out for six hours to maybe once every six to eight weeks.
If I have a “small” migraine, I’ll work from home. I’m lucky to be able to do that! My boss doesn’t care if we do our work at home, in the office, in Starbucks, on the moon…as long as it gets done and we meet our deadlines.
I’m also lucky that I’ve had jobs with a good amount of PTO (vacation and sick and personal days all in one bucket). I think I currently have 24 days per year.
Each time I called in sick, I was never sick. Better to take a day off work when you are healthy. And can enjoy it.
Because of this philosophy, I never got sick.
Frustratingly, it’s a mix. Quite of few of my vacation days go towards being sick, and my sick days go to vacation due to the wonky, overly-specific way my companies time off system works. On the plus side, we get a relatively decent dose of time off.
It’s really sort of a gray area. Nearly every consulting firm I’ve ever worked for has a fairly loose “work from home” policy. Some regular companies too. It’s kind of a double-edged sword. If you’re a bit sick, hung over, need to wait for the cable guy, weather is bad or basically just feel like going to the office you can pretty much do you job from anywhere so long as you have your laptop and an internet connection. OTOH, they might also call you when you’re on vacation or over the weekend.
I have worked for the company for almost thirty six years. Two and a half years ago, I had a slight heart attack. I had a stent put in one Sunday morning. I sent my boss a text from the recovery room to let him know that I would be out for a short time. I went back to work a week later.
The time before that, I called in sick because I had the stomach flu. The next phone call I made was to find my daughter a ride to middle school. My daughter is now 37 years old…
Yeah, since my last post (April 2011), my company’s gone to a much more liberal WFH policy, and unfortunately, the expectation seems to be that if you’re sick, but not deathly ill, you’re more or less expected to WFH, since everyone does what I said they do in my earlier post, which is NOT to take PTO days unless they’re literally so sick they can’t come in.
Personally, I think they ought to break sick days out from PTO days, and just have PTO days represent vacation and stuff like jury duty, etc… OR… lump sick and PTO days together and have vacation be separate. Either would be fine, but the current way incentivizes coming in when you’re sick and/or working when you feel like shit. I tend to go in anyway rather than WFH, just because being at work is more relaxing and conducive to getting well than being in a house with a 3 year old, a 9 month old and my wife.
I call out if I am unable to do my work suitably or if I am likely to be contagious to my coworkers.
While I have ample sick leave I never take it if I am not truly ill. I may go a few years between sick days, and then end up using all of the available annual sick leave in one illness.